


Background Noise

by Geonn



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Episode: s04e01 Tempus, F/F, Interspecies, Mermaids, Nudity, Reunions, Skinny Dipping, Swimming, Telepathy, Underwater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-20
Updated: 2011-10-20
Packaged: 2017-10-24 19:46:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/267178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen visits one of her dearest friends. (spoilers for Tempus)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Background Noise

Helen undressed in her bedroom and walked down the hall barefoot, wearing only a thin silk robe. There was something freeing about being so close to naked in a home she hadn't seen in over a century. She ran her fingers over the wainscoting, paused to look out the window at scenery that long ago faded from memory. In a way it felt like she was traveling in time again. She'd gone back to 1898 and had the opportunity to see James, and then she lived another century before coming back where she belonged. If Adam Worth had stayed dead, if she'd never been forced to chase him back in time, she would be living in the year 2124 now. The thought made her mind reel.

But there was something she had to do, a task she'd put off until her mind was calm and the Sanctuary was mostly empty. She needed to eliminate all the distractions in order to focus on this meeting. She took the stairs down, locking the access door behind her before she shed her robe. The water was still, a pristine lake in the middle of the mermaid's habitat. Helen walked across the slippery stones and crouched, her arms crossed over her knees as she peered down into the water. She smiled when she spotted movement.

Seconds later, a beautiful blue face broke through the waves. The water coursed over her cheeks and throat, and Helen reached out to smooth seaweed hair against a contoured skull. They smiled at each other and Helen bent down. The mermaid rose higher in the water and their lips met. To one, it was a simple kiss of welcome. To the other, it was a reunion.

The mermaid communicated with Helen during the kiss, transmitting images and concepts rather than words. Helen had long ago learned how to translate them into pidgin English. _"Worried about you so much."_

 _"I'm safe now. I'm all right."_

 _"Not whole."_

Helen broke the kiss and looked into her friend's eyes. "What do you mean?"

The mermaid put her hand on Helen's chest and moved it in a wide circle. _"Not whole. Just you."_

"I don't understand."

The mermaid pulled back and treaded water for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Then she spoke again. _"Always see you, hear you, feel you. Here. And there. Here/there. Both together, now no."_

Helen put the sentence together several ways before she realized what she was saying. "You've always sensed there were two of me. Part here at the Sanctuary and part... elsewhere." The mermaid nodded. "And now there's only me."

 _"You were hurt?"_

"No. It's very complicated." She closed her eyes and focused on images that would tell the story. Adam Worth, the machine that sent him back in time, her pursuit. The conversation with James, and then the long, excruciating wait. Always with an eye on the year 2011 and the day she would be able to rejoin her life in progress.

"I haven't seen you in one hundred years," Helen whispered. " _I_ was the other you sensed, the background noise. And to know you've felt me all that time, to know that you were keeping an eye on me warms my heart. I have missed you, oh so very much." She kissed the mermaid again, this time feeling the flicker of her friend's tongue against her own. The mermaid's hand dropped to Helen's breast, and Helen put her hand on the back of the mermaid's neck.

They broke the kiss just long enough for Helen to sink into the water. It was cool and comfortable, and she wrapped her legs around the mermaid's waist to keep from drifting away. They dipped under the water just long enough to wet Helen's hair. Helen swept it back out of her face as they resumed the kiss.

Helen needed oxygen, and the mermaid couldn't be above water very long. They compromised by going back and forth, dipping under until Helen needed to breath, at which point she surfaced and the mermaid kissed and licked Helen's lower body. Helen pressed her back against a rock, letting her body float as the mermaid drifted between her legs. She was teased with slick scales and a flickering fin, and then human fingers pushed between her folds. Helen gasped and looked down as the mermaid kissed her way up Helen's body.

They kissed as the water lifted their bodies, pressing them together as Helen's fingers dug into the stone. The mermaid's fingers, slender and talented, twisted inside of Helen until she cried out against her friend's mouth. She pressed her cheek against the mermaid's wet cheek, gasping and wetting her lips with her tongue as she came underwater. She dropped her hands from the rock and clung to her lover, her friend, and then went limp. The mermaid held her until Helen could tread water on her own, and they looked into each other's eyes for a long moment.

 _"Just one of me now,"_ Helen sent. _"Are you disappointed?"_

 _"You are clear in my mind. No distractions. No background noise. Just you."_

 _"And what's the verdict?"_

There was no direct translation for the images the mermaid sent, but Helen parsed them all down to a simple feeling of love and devotion. They kissed again, Helen's thighs brushed against the scales of her friend's lower body.

 _"Thank you for visiting me. You must be very busy."_

 _"Nothing that can't be delayed. For now, I would very much like to go for a swim. It has been a very, very long time since I've enjoyed swimming. There was always something missing."_

 _"Perhaps I can help you find it."_

Helen smiled and let go, allowing the currents to pull them apart. The mermaid rose slightly out of the water and flipped backward, disappearing below the surface. Her tail broke the waves as she pushed herself toward the bottom of the small harbor. Helen smiled and took a deep breath before she followed her friend under.


End file.
